re: #165 makeitstop

And the radio promotions game was as dirty as it gets for a while.

Payola scandal

It nearly took down an American icon, Dick Clark. He had enough sense to back away.

Ah, that’s what was rattling around in the back of my mind.

…So, by the time 1960 rolled around you can see how ASCAP most have felt when BMI was increasing and becoming more powerful each year. Rock and Roll and Rockabilly – a combination of rock and hillbilly music – skyrocketed in the 1950’s and the big boys, ASCAP, had to do something to stop it. It was not surprising at all, in 1959 when urged and backed by ASCAP, the House Legislative Committee started investigating corrupt broadcasting practices.

The committee broadened its investigation, which had been focusing on the rigged TV game shows, to include the practice of payola in radio. ASCAP believed that once investigated it would show that songs copyrighted with BMI became hits dishonestly because of payola. As ridiculous and petty as this sounds, it was the way of thinking back in those days.

This type of thinking came from the fact that many felt rock and roll music was the music of the devil, it was corrupting teenagers morally, and that teenagers only were listening to it because they had been tricked by greedy DJs who pocketed money or gifts to play songs over and over again until the teenagers were basically brainwashed.

[…]

Nevertheless, the Payola scandal didn’t serve ASCAP’s and many others main purpose, and that was to eliminate rock and roll. After a brief victory by the powers to be and a three year period of some really dreadful pop music, rock and roll music came back strong in the mid-1960’s with the help of the British Invasion and has been riding high ever since. No rock and roll was no fad it was here to stay.